Aussie Childcare Network Forum

I am currently working as a cert III assistant in a 2-3 room. I have only been there for 5 weeks, after 3 weeks the diploma qualified in the room left due to having a baby, so now i am in there, brand new on my own each day! I am always within the ratio, but its so hard being on your own all day, unable to go on your allocated tea breaks, you cant go to the toilet without it being a hassle and everything is just so much harder when you r doing ALL the daily jobs and activities. On top of all this i am now in charge of the programming, magical moments, scrap books etc, and the room leader who left hadnt done a single magic moment or scrap book in the 3 months she worked there, and had only done 1 program. So now i am working 8.5 hours a day at work, then atleast 3-4 hours at home each night after work, and all day on the weekends trying to catch everything up, do all the scrapbooks for all the children from scrtach and write all the magical moments plus the daily journals, I AM EXHAUSTED!!! I only get paid 18.06 per hour, which is crap money but they can cos im 19 years old, but if i am doing all the programming and all the work in my room that i am not responsible for or qualified to do, then surely i should be getting paid more than this? especially if they are talking about it being permanent (me in charge) and hiring another assistant for the room instead of a diploma. suggestions anyone???? thanks so much!!!

Hi shmollie_hollie,
I would be checking your pay rate if I were you, the award I have found out as of January 2010 if you are compleating higher duties of more than 2 hours a day you are entilted to thoes wages, so if you are room leading even though you are a cert 3 you are entilted to room leading wages which is diploma wages as you are carring out thoes duties. Double check this with the childrens services award, fair work australia or the fair work ombudsman. Under the childrens services award it does state that you are entilted to higher wages if the duties are carried out for more than 2 hours per day. Good luck with this, hope it helps.

thanks for your input everyone its really helped! i spoke to my centre manager today and she said that yes i am entitled to more money since i am doing jobs that are out of my job description, i am now very excited since i love room leading and programming and all that and we talked about making it permanent with more pay! thanks everyone!

Thats great shmollie-hollie its just a shame that you had to ask for it and your center manager didnt offer it to you , she might have been seeing how long she could get away with it for, like alot of centers remember to check your entitlements everyone because if you dont know they are not going to tell you.

Its good you are going to get more moeny but that does not suddelny wipe out al lthe extra work and stress you were talking about in your opening post. At the offer of more money your attitude is now "this is great I love it" let me tell you if money is your motivation you are in the wrong job!

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AGGHHH wrote a whole reply and got logged out and it got wiped!! grrr
so here goes ...again

Good that you are getting more money but at the end of the day you will burn out if you continue to run the room on your own. The 2-3 age group is extremely demanding and you need at least 2 people in the room, you need help, so please ask for an assistant.
God forbid should something happen and you have to face parents or some other authority it will all boil down to "i was in room alone" Regardless of ratios you need another person.

Secondly sign up for your Diploma asap, I think you have 3 months that you can be a GL for with just a Cert III after that you will not have the proper quals to do that job as you need to at least be studying for your Diploma to be a GL.
You seem more than capable and once you have experience you will also be able to RPL some units which will mean that you can get through your Diploma quicker. Also it means that they cannot replace you and demote you back to assistant if someone studying or someone with a Diploma shows up for a job.
So my advice is contact a TAFE asap and sign up and let work know.

Good Luck.